Apparently having a box office smash isn’t enough to keep stock prices afloat anymore. At least not when Wall Street has set expectation so high. But don’t panic says Businessweek columnist Ronald Grover, the box office is good.
If it, in fact, wobbles it’s way to $230 million this year that would have ranked as last year’s fourth-largest film, about 10% or so behind Warner Bros.’ Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire. (I don’t recall anyone calling that a disappointment, despite its $140 million budget, about double Car’s budget, according to movie site IMDB.com.) As for Car’s "disappointing" opening weekend, only three films this year—X Men: The Last Stand, The Da Vinci Code, and Ice Age: The Meltdown—;have opened better. Simply put, how is this disappointing?
Also dispelling the $7.4 billion purchase price for Pixar, Grover notes that Iger was buying the Pixar brain trust, the goal of which is to save the Disney company from itself.
There may be plenty of reasons to sell Disney stock right now, but Pixar results isn’t one of them.